Swinging the Lambeth Walk (1940)

Len Lye’s camera-less film animates “swing” versions of the popular Lambeth Walk—featuring Django Reinhardt on guitar and Stéphane Grappelli on violin—through scratched and painted imagery directly on celluloid. Sponsored by the Tourist and Industrial Development Association after Lye and his family fell into hardship, the film blends vibrant visual rhythms with music, free of advertising slogans, and stands out as one of Lye’s most playful experiments in direct cinema.

Released

1940-02-01

Genres

Music, Animation

Runtime

4 min

Status

Released

Directed / written by

Len Lye

TMDB rating

6.1/10 from 21 votes